Planning commission recommends zoning change

Medical building possible use for site

By Sam Wildow - swildow@aimmediamidwest.com

PIQUA — During their meeting this week, the city of Piqua Planning Commission recommended a zoning change to the Piqua City Commission for a property on Garbry Road that may be used for another medical building in the future.

The planning commission approved recommended changing the zoning for the property located at 1130 Garbry Road from open space to general business.

City Planner Chris Schmiesing said this 5-acre property is located at the southwest quadrant of the intersection of Garby and Looney roads. There is currently a single-family home on the property, but the last use of the property was for agriculture. Schmiesing also noted that this area, while used for agriculture in the past, is growing into a business park.

The applicant, Mark Feathers of South Carolina, requested the zoning change so he could sell the property and so the site could be developed. Feathers said that there is currently some interest in the site for a medical office building.

“There is anticipated interest in the site given the activity in the area,” Schmiesing said. “The end user isn’t necessarily known at this point, but there is some interest in medical offices … type use, which is entirely consistent with the corridor.”

The zoning change will go to the city commission for final approval.

The planning commission also approved recommending a resolution to the city commission that would add hospitals as a principal permitted use within general business districts in the city’s code.

Schmiesing called this resolution a “housekeeping matter.” Schmiesing said that, in the zoning code, hospitals are listed as a special use in the two-family and multi-family residential zoning code, but he said that, by today’s standards, listing hospitals in a business district would be “more applicable.”

As a principal permitted use in the business district and no longer being listed as a special use, the property owners would also not need to seek additional approval to use the site as a hospital as long as the site was already zoned for general business.

This change to the city’s code in regard to the business district will also go to the city commission for final approval.